Idea plus knitting guru leads to an experiment. knit 7 purl 2 knit 11 purl 3 . . .
ɕ
Haulin’ the mail
Whatever it is that you think you could NEVER do, figure out how to make a small step in the direction of your goal. Take that first step. Then look back and say, “well, now that I’ve come this far, I may as well go a little farther.”
I hope someone reads this, gets riled up, and thinks: “YEAH! I want to go for a walk!” …or a run, or a 5k, or swing on some bars, or walk a flight of stairs without gasping for breath, or lower my cholesterol, or be alive to play with my grand-kids. Whatever your goal is, GO CRUSH IT!
I remember when doing ONE STINKING PULLUP was inconceivable. Now I’m doing 70 — yes SEVENTY — per workout. The things that used to CRUSH me in class? …that stuff’s now my WARM-UP. Here’s a part of the worksheet that shows what’s going on with the pullups odometer. 3,000 reps is in the past (again, INCONCEIVABLE!) 4,000 is right on the horizon. Every workout through 4,000 is planned. A few more of the workouts are an identical, “all 70’s”, setup. Then, there are three weeks of bumping everything up +5.
In this screenshot, I’ve just completed January 27th/Day #190. The yellow block is the next planned workout; an exact repeat of today. There are more columns for the other activities, but now that all the activities’ numbers are in sync, they’re all the same. The pattern of workouts-to-rests is work-rest-work-rest-rest so that I have a regular, two-day rest over and over. Also, that’s a 5 day pattern so my workouts do not have the same weekdays — that’s really important to keep things from turning into “Monday’s suck” if I had a fixed weekly pattern. The double-rest also gives me a space to pull a workout one-day-earlier if I need to rearrange things, without making it into a killer two-days-in-a-row. (The things you think of when you do this for six months. D8 )
If anyone wants the details: The workouts are a ~45 minute circuit, based around 5 sets. Pushups, squats and bar-precisions are 5×14 (that’s 5 sets of 14 repititions.) The pullups are 5×6 (5 sets of 6 reps) plus 8×5 (8 sets of 5). So I do a set of pushups, squats and bar-pre’s to get really warmed up, then do a set of pullups between each set of everything else:
SET 1
14 pushups
14 squats
14 bar-precisions
SET 2
6 pullups
14 pushups
6 pullups
14 squats
6 pullups
14 bar-pre’s
SET 3
6 pullups
14 pushups
6 pullups
14 squats
5 pullups
14 bar-pre’s
SET 4
5 pullups
14 pushups
5 pullups
14 squats
5 pullups
14 bar-pre’s
SET 5
5 pullups
14 pushups
5 pullups
14 squats
5 pullups
14 bar-pre’s
FINALLY
5 final pullups (but sometimes I just wedge this in somewhere above)
40 second handstand (against wall)
30 second handstand
When I do a +5 bump, I just turn all those “14s” into “15s” and the 5-set layout makes a tidy +5. For pullups I can add a separate set of 5 at the end, or turn 5 5s into 5 6s, whatever — I have to see what I feel like in a few weeks.
ɕ
Washington’s Cherry Trees
Photos from a trip to Washington D.C. (about ten years ago) to see the cherry trees in bloom. It was a blustery, cold day in April!
ɕ
Mark of an educated mind
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
~ Aristotle
slip:4a52.
Resignation speech of George Washington
… Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my Commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life.
~ George Washington, from Washington’s Resignation Speech
slip:4ueese1.
December 23, 1783, from the Resignation Speech of George Washington
ɕ
Baby it’s cold outside
So I sat down and finished hand-labeling the last 1,000 slides! #OCD If i’m snowed in tomorrow, guess what I’m doing. Between slides and prints, I’m approaching 20,000 digital images. Next up, “some” image tagging. o_O
ɕ
What’s up for 2016?
I’ve recently started thinking about 2016 goals. These aren’t “New Year’s Resolutions”; When I pick up a goal, it’s only after a lot of thinking and planning. Most importantly, I only commit if I believe the result of reaching the goal is worth it.
I’m considering things like the following:
- Hip/ankle flexibility: Achieve being able to sit, relaxed in a full squat. (I’ve been working on this for 3 months already.)
- Reach a lower weight; I’m thinking 210 is probably a good goal for about 6 months out. (Currently about 223.)
- Run 10 minute miles; Maybe run a 5K in 30 minutes in October. (I think this would be pretty easy if I was 210.)
…and then a bunch of non-physical training things:
- Become fluent in French. (A big challenge!)
- Develop a solid writing habit.
- Develop a solid reading habit. (I already read a lot; It’s consistently finding/making the time.)
Allez! Allez!
ɕ
Salvia Leucantha
ɕ
6 months. 3,000 rep’s.
3,000 reps is in the bag, exactly 6 months into the challenge (on day #183.) Also, for the first time ever, all five activities match up exactly.
In a disucsion with some friends yesterday, the 70 pullups of today’s workout turned into a challenge: Do them in as few sets as possible. I only managed 7,5,6, 6,6,5, 7×5 — but that’s still the fewest-ever sets for 70 pullups for me. (I’ve been doing all sets-of-five, or trailing off to sets of 5.)
This week has another workout planned on Saturday. I’m watching the snow storm coming, and I might be going into NYC for some parkour events on Saturday. So I may pull that workout forward to Friday. If I do that, I’ll also pull the following workouts forward to keep the ‘work,rest,work,rest,rest’ pattern intact. (Which, by the way, feels like it’s working well for me.)
Beyond that, I have all the workouts sketched out, with various +5 steps in reps, to get to 4,000 reps in another 5 weeks. At that point, the workouts would be 85 reps of things hopefully in a 5×17 arrangement for pushups, squats, bar-precisions and who-knows-what the pullup sets will look like. I’m currently doing the 65 seconds of handstand in two parts so it would be cool if I could keep the handstand to just 2 stands to reach the time for each workout.
Feels like a lifetime ago that I started this craziness! :D
ɕ
Motivated
I post this stuff partly in the hope that someone might find it inspirational, but mostly as way to keep myself accountable. I’ve been talking about this project for 6 months — tomorrow is literally the 6 month point — and there’s just no way I want to have to explain how/why I didn’t make the goal.
There are a number of people out there that I’m quietly using as inspiration. I’m going to try to take the time to thank them face-to-face in the coming weeks rather than name-drop them in a post. So moving on…
Here’s the status update from Monday’s workout. (I wrote this status update to my accountability partner on Tuesday[today].)
I did it. Monday was a whirlwind, so just now getting around to workbook updates and status.
Mega-crappy workout. Everything stacked against me; tired from lots of training and driving, 3 hours of sleep, my hands were super-sore from doing a ton of hanging/swinging/climbing on sunday… frickin’ cold outside… I taped up my hands and shoved ’em in leather work gloves (makes pullups even harder on the 1-1/4″ pipe because it’s slippery with gloves) and just went, “odometer numbers, forget everything else”… I broke into a zillion 6 and 7 rep sets of push, squat, bar-precision (to do 65 of each activity) and did a zillion sets of 3 pullups to get 70 reps of pullups. My grip was already sore and burnt-out from Sunday so it was all red-lining what my forearms would do.
BUT, I made my goal numbers of reps for the day.
Also, Tracy and I did our usual run this morning, very cold but managable. Now I need to sit around all day today and recover, I have like this head cold from being exhausted i think.
Anyway. I’m still on track for tomorrow’s workout for the 6 month mark and 3,000 reps.
ɕ
Your former self
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; True nobility is being superior to your former self.
~ Ernest Hemingway
slip:4a35.
Gettin’ out of town!
LVPK dodging the snow heading to the T. “To the car!”
ɕ
Chilly
Bethany unpacked Austin’s sleeping bag for a post lunch, pre-training, pre- pre-warmup. Honestly, it is cold in here.
ɕ
Drop yo’…
Sign modified temporarily for the kids’ segments #pg
ɕ
Haaaaahrved
Ultimate hopskotch and stride challenges. #lvpk #pkgenamericas
ɕ
Bethlehem serenity garden
Adjacent to Bethlehem’s public library is a Japanese serenity garden. It was a gift from Bethlehem’s sister city Tondabayashi Japan. In 1971, Tondabayashi sent all the materials and the workmen to build this as a gift to the people of Bethlehem. If you live in the Lehigh Valley, this is a great place to visit; it’s just a short walk from Main Street on the north side of the city. These photos are from a dedication of a new “Mayors’ Green” that is located just in front of the garden.
ɕ
Reverse
Life can only be understood in reverse.
~ unknown
slip:4a338.
Onward!
Planning is really paying off…
While I was in Boston, my schedule shifted and I did my planned-for-Saturday workout on Friday. When I got home to my desk and looked over the bigger picture, I realized that shift enables me to pull the “3,000 reps milestone” workout forward so it falls exactly in the middle of the year — on day 183.
Just-completed week is filled in, and next week is laid out. A few really neat things are coming up in the next two weeks:
Monday: I finally get the slightest back-down on pullup counts since I started really working on them over 3 months ago. 80, drops down to 75 :P At the same time, everything else goes up to 60 reps. 60 bar-precisions is going to be so nice after having to crank out 85 for a few days (to bank rep’s) before I went to Boston.
Saturday: Another increment of activities, and the final back-down of pullups.
All of which is working toward a very special milestone that’s coming up in two weeks. :D For next few months I’ll be settling into a regular pattern of ‘work, rest, work, rest, rest’ with a regular +5-reps across the board as I work to build up the total numbers. All across the board, the “running rate needed” numbers is about 40, or 80 every-other day; So I’m still behind the pace I need to finish on time, but now I’m really getting close. The medium term goal is to do 100 rep’s of everything, and run that out to the end of the challenge.
Onward!
ɕ
Corsican Mint
Mentha Requienii, also called Corsican Mint (as in Creme de Menthe)
ɕ
Force, dignite, partage
Rep’ing #addquebec as I do my 10k project homework on #pkgenamericas awesome scaf at #brooklynboulders in Boston! So happy I had a workout plan for this trip… because Anton is trying to fatten us up like foie gras! Next, John and I are going get some climbing in. :)
ɕ